Introduction of the Special Issue “Measures of Spirituality/Religiosity (2018)”

The interest in the topic of spirituality as a more or less independent dimension of quality of life is continuously growing. Furthermore, the research questions in this topic have started to change because also the fields of religiosity are changing, becoming more diverse and pluralistic. To address the new topics in health research, one may rely on standardized questionnaires. Several of these new questions cannot be easily answered with the instruments designed for previous questions and thus, new instruments need to be constantly developed. There is a growing number of instruments intended to measure specific aspects of spirituality and they are difficult to value particularly the new ones.

This special issue intends to focus on some of the already established instruments (and to update the knowledge or adaptation to different languages and cultures) and describe the features and intentions of newly developed instruments, which may be potentially used in larger studies to obtain knowledge that is relevant to spiritual care and practice. Some of these are rather ‘inclusive’ (also embracing secular concepts of spirituality and may thus be less specific) and others are rather ‘exclusive’ (or specific for circumscribed religious groups and thus, not suited for varying denominations or non-religious persons). This issue should become a resource of relevant instruments in the wide range of organized religiosity, the individual experience of the divine and the open approach in the search for meaning and purpose in life.